


Finding Time for Rest

by legendaryroar



Series: Finding Time for Rest [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post Season 7, Shiro needs rest and Keith will stop at nothing to make him get some
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 15:57:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15688665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legendaryroar/pseuds/legendaryroar
Summary: Keith finally gets some time to see Shiro only to find him looking dead on his feet. He won't stand for this. Shiro needs rest, and Keith will make him get some even if it means kidnapping him from the Garrison.





	Finding Time for Rest

It really only proves Keith’s point. Shiro is protesting every step of the way. They have to meet with this and that dignitary from another planet. The Garrison this, the Garrison that. More test flights with Atlas. But for all his superior size and strength, he’s allowing Keith to tug him along by his wrist without any resistance at all.

“Ah, Captain, there you are! I just need—”

Keith isn’t sure what his face looks like, but the officer stops dead in his tracks with wide eyes and that’s enough.

“Captain Shirogane is taking the day off,” he says, surprised that his voice comes out as a rough, low growl, but glad when the officer actually takes a step back. “Two days, actually. Maybe three.”

“Keith,” Shiro says, tired but full of warning.

Keith just ignores him and keeps tugging him along. Where’s Kosmo when he needs him? He doesn’t really have a destination in mind, but he finally gets time to see Shiro only to find him looking completely dead on his feet and _still_ working.

“I can’t take three days off,” Shiro starts, but Keith tunes out the rest.

If Shiro really needs to stay, or more importantly, _want_ _s_ to stay, then there is no way Keith would be able to move him. But he still follows, slow enough that Keith does have to tug him along a little, like a petulant child, but quickly enough that Keith isn’t really pulling him along the whole time.

The halls of the Garrison are no longer familiar, and Keith is trying to remember the way to the exit, when Kosmo suddenly appears in front of him. Relief hits him so hard his knees almost give out, and he reaches out to place a hand on Kosmo’s head.

Shiro’s defeated groan gets cut off and lost before they land. There’s a sudden warmth at the back of Keith’s mind, his bond with Black waking and unfurling. More than the usual welcome, there’s something else there. It takes a moment before he realises she’s happy with him. Before he can question it, Kosmo disappears again, and all around them there’s the rushing sound of Black taking off.

Kosmo landed them right near the makeshift bed Keith’s been setting up in the far back corner of the cargo hold. More like a nest really, he thinks to himself, face heating up. Krolia knows about it, and she didn’t seem surprised at all, so Keith figures it’s a Galra thing. In fact, she’d found him a few blankets while they’d been travelling and passed them to him without word.

Still, it’s probably a little weird, and he turns to Shiro to try and explain, only to feel his breath leave his chest.

Shiro’s eyes are closed, but Keith can see tears in the corners, catching the dim light. His expression is somewhere between pain and longing, and Keith feels his stomach twist hard. His own relief at being in Black had completely blinded him. Of all places, he shouldn’t have brought Shiro here.

He opens his mouth to apologise, but there’s a gentle nudge in the back of his mind to wait. It’s calm and knowing, so Keith waits without question. After spending so long fighting his connection to Black, fighting to get Shiro back where he belonged, he’s finally given in to it. Resisting the connection had only endangered the team, and even if he’s still waiting for the day Shiro takes back his lion, he’s decided to stop fighting it for now.

“She’s still there,” Shiro says softly, finally opening his eyes. His expression contorts into something vulnerable and lost before shifting into something more reserved. “I can still feel her.”

Keith tuts before he can stop himself. “Of course she is. She’s your lion.”

Shiro grimaces and looks away, looks around. Keith is tempted to smack the back of his head for that. Even if he’s flying her now, she’ll always be Shiro’s too. He can even feel her approval in the back of his mind. Once, he would have thought that meant he wasn’t really welcome, just a placeholder, but they’ve come too far together now.

When Shiro’s eyes fall onto Keith’s assortment of mattresses and blankets and pillows, he wants to cringe, but he doesn’t. They’re all the way in the back of the cargo hold, and from the feel of it, the slight hum and vibration around them, they’re flying. Black is taking them away somewhere and he doesn’t know how long they have, but it’ll be long enough.

No matter what Shiro thinks of his makeshift bed, he’s getting on it whether he wants to or not. Keith can see the bone-tired ache in his eyes. He probably hasn’t slept for more than a few hours since they saved Earth.

“That looks...cozy,” Shiro finally says. His voice is a bit rough from the tears he’s still managing to hold back, but there’s humour in there too.

Keith jerks his head to it. “Go on then.”

Shiro sighs. “Keith, what are you doing? Where are we going?”

“I don’t know, I’m not piloting her. She’ll take us back if we’re needed,” Keith says, taking Shiro’s human hand and tugging him over to the bed.

Shiro goes without resistance again, and Keith smiles to himself while Shiro isn’t looking. Black is a big warm sense of happiness in the back of his mind, full of approval at what he’s doing. Keith’s glad Shiro can still feel their bond. He doesn’t need to ask to know she’ll be warm and happy in the back of his mind too.

They stop beside the bed, and Keith lifts his hands to Shiro’s clothes. There’s a stillness to Shiro as he starts tugging them off. Keith goes slow, checking his expression every few moments, and letting his hands linger on buttons and zips before easing them open.

“Is this alright?” he finally asks softly, once Shiro’s jacket and shirt are off. He’s still in his undershirt and pants, and Keith is eyeing up his boots.

Shiro tips forward, resting his head on Keith’s shoulder. “Yeah,” he breathes.

They haven’t had time for this for a while. In fact, Keith thinks not since before Shiro was even in this body. Like always, his mind skitters away from the time it wasn’t Shiro. They’ve talked about that, Shiro seems genuine in his understanding of it, but still, it makes Keith want to look away in shame. That he could be with the clone and not know. That he knows this body intimately from when it wasn’t Shiro.

There’s a soft clinking sound, and Keith looks down to see Shiro’s new arm resting on the floor. After a moment, it powers down. A full-body shiver passes over Keith.

“You don’t have to do that,” he says, sliding his hands up Shiro’s neck and lifting his head off his shoulder to look him in the eye. “Your arm doesn’t make me uncomfortable.”

Shiro’s finally given up on looking put together. His face is tapestry of exhaustion and pain. Keith thumbs at the lines. He’s had more than enough sleep himself, since he’s been going to Black instead of staying in the room the Garrison provided him with, but just looking at Shiro makes him feel tired too. Just knowing how completely exhausted he must feel, and knowing how he never thinks of himself enough to actually rest.

“It’s not that,” Shiro says. “It’s just...I don’t need it with you.”

Keith presses his forehead against Shiro’s for a moment. He could stand like that with him forever, but the pile of blankets and mattresses is calling him. Shiro must understand, because he reaches for the hem of his own shirt.

“Let me,” Keith says, catching his hand and moving it away.

“I can undress myself.”

There’s no room to feel bad, Shiro doesn’t sound defensive at all. It’s more like he’s just stating a fact. “I know, but I want to,” Keith says anyway. Looking down, he rethinks that. “You can take off your own boots though.”

Shiro’s exhale comes out like a soft whine. “One time. That was one time and I didn’t mean to kick you.”

“One day I’m going to tell the others your ankles are ticklish,” Keith says with a low chuckle.

“Then I’ll tell them about that spot behind your ears,” Shiro returns, moving back to kick off his boots. He nearly falls over before he caves and reaches down to loosen the laces. “Lance would get a kick out of hearing you yelp like that.”

“Lance screams like a girl if you so much as touch his sides, he wouldn’t dare.”

Shiro’s hand spasms on his laces, and Keith is about to reach down to help when Shiro sighs. “I forgot how good that feels,” he says. “When she’s amused.”

It takes Keith a moment to understand what he means, but when he stills his mind, he can feel it there. Black is amused. It’s like a warm vibration in the back of his mind.

“Eavesdropper,” Keith mutters, giving the bond a gentle prod. Red was never as present in his mind as Black is, and not for the first time, he aches to ask the others about their bonds with their lions. But it doesn’t feel right. It especially doesn’t feel right to ask Lance about Red now. The idiot would probably think he wants to take her away from him.

Shiro manages to get his boots off and straightens. But he doesn’t look amused anymore, he looks sad. Keith doesn’t even have to ask. Instead, he steps forward and gently takes Shiro’s undershirt off.

“You’re not going to miss it because it is always going to be there,” he says, knowing he got it right when Black purrs approval in the back of his mind. “Haven’t you felt it before now? Even when you’re not here?”

Shiro looks away. “I thought I was imagining it. I...I pushed it away.”

“Well that was stupid,” Keith mutters, dropping Shiro’s undershirt to the side and looking over his torso. It’s the first time he’s really taken the time to look since the fight.

There are some new scars from him, and he doesn’t know how he feels about that yet. Shiro hasn’t seen him naked yet either, and he almost wants to keep that barrier between them. There are scars on his body from the clone, and even though they’ve talked about the fight, he wants to shield Shiro from them for as long as he can.

Lost in thought, he almost jerks backwards when Shiro brushes his thumb over Keith’s cheek.

“We’ve been over this,” Shiro says softly. “That fight was not the fault of either of us. It had to happen, and you did the best you could.”

Keith shakes his head, unsurprised that Shiro knew what he was thinking, and drops his hands to the fastening on Shiro’s pants. “I know. Can I take these off?”

Shiro hesitates, and Keith looks up to see his cheeks flushing. It stirs something in Keith too but he pushes it aside.

“Not for that,” he says, shaking his head. “You’re getting in this bed and sleeping even if I have to knock you over the back of the head.”

Black purrs approval in the back of his mind and Keith blanches. _Oh_. Shiro was probably worrying about him starting something with Black paying such close attention, not getting turned on from Keith undressing him.

Clearing his throat, he gets Shiro’s pants off with minimal fuss and can’t quite look him in the eye the whole time. Black prods at his mind and he pushes her away.

When he’s left only in his underwear and socks, Shiro hooks a finger under the collar of Keith’s shirt and tugs.

“You too.”

Still feeling a mix of embarrassment and arousal, Keith tears his clothes off quickly and efficiently, not looking at Shiro the whole time. He can feel Black’s amusement in the back of his mind and gives her a mental shove.

“How did you accumulate all this anyway?” Shiro asks, clambering onto the piles of mattresses, pillows and blankets. If he noticed the scars his clone left, Keith can’t tell. Maybe he wants to leave that alone for a while too. “None of this looks like it’s from Earth.”

Keith shrugs and watches him settle. “Some of it is from the castle. Krolia found some things along the way to Earth. I just...” His face is burning. Krolia’s lack of reaction tells him it’s completely normal, but he still doesn’t really understand it. He doesn’t really want to ask her either. When he thinks back to his room at the Garrison, the way he’d always felt itchy and out of place with the small regulation bed, and then to his shack in the desert and the pile he’d accumulated there and how comfortable he’d felt even in his grief, it’s not something that’s new for him even if he’s never really _noticed_ it until now.

Shiro lies back and sighs loudly. Keith pushes his thoughts away and watches as tension visibly bleeds away. But after only a moment, Shiro tenses up again.

“We don’t have time for this,” he mutters, rolling onto his side and looking up at Keith. His own actions betray his words, as Keith watches him curl up a little and pull one of the blankets to his chest. It makes him look small, and Keith itches to extend this trip to a week to give Shiro the break he really needs.

“That’s no longer your call,” he says instead, clambering onto the bed and pushing Shiro onto his back.

Shiro moves without resisting the motion at all. He looks up at Keith with a relaxed expression, even though his next words are, “I outrank you. If I say turn this lion around, you have to.”

Keith snorts and straddles his hips. “Do you though? Voltron doesn’t answer to the Garrison, so wouldn’t that put me outside your chain of command?”

“Technicalities” Shiro mutters, some of the tension easing again as Keith runs his hands over his chest.

That’s probably something they should sort out, but regardless of rank, Shiro still let Keith bring him here, still let him undress him and push him into bed. It would be easy enough to shut him down, but Keith gets it. He gets that Shiro needs these moments of protest.

“You’re not leaving this lion until you’ve had at least ten hours of sleep,” he says, leaning forward and pressing their foreheads together.

“Ten _hours_?”

There’s a hitch in Shiro’s voice that gives away how badly he needs that, and Keith sighs and presses their lips together before he can protest further. As he leans back, he smooths his hands along Shiro’s shoulders. When his left hand brushes metal, he bites his lip and considers his options.

Shiro doesn’t give him time. He reaches over. His hand obscures what he does, but moments later there’s a quiet hiss and the metal shoulder comes away, revealing the stump of his arm under it. Shiro lifts it and then drops it over the edge of the mattress. The sound it makes when it hits the floor makes Keith flinch, but he’s too focused on how red the skin of the stump is to look away.

He reaches out before he can stop himself, smoothing his fingertips over the red skin, right down to the stump.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Shiro sighs.

“It looks like it hurts,” Keith says, leaning down without thought to press the side of his face to it, feeling how hot the skin is against his cheek.

Shiro’s breathing catches on a hitch and Keith jerks back. But Shiro doesn’t look upset or uncomfortable. He lifts his hand and cups the side of Keith’s face. Keith presses into and closes his eyes. He’s needed this. They haven’t had time to do this, just be close with each other. There’s always something to do, or always someone around. Maybe he needs it more than Shiro needs sleep.

“I missed you,” he whispers.

Shiro’s hand slips back to the nape of Keith’s neck, pulling him down again until their foreheads touch. “I need you,” Shiro whispers back, finally admitting it out loud. “I need this.”

“I know,” Keith replies, brushing their lips together for a chaste kiss before pulling back and moving off him.

He settles at his side, resting his head on Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro’s left arm curls over his shoulders and Keith sighs. He can feel Shiro relax even more and knows he’s also feeling the warm presence of Black at the back of his mind.

“Just a few hours,” Shiro mumbles.

“Ten hours, _at least_ ,” Keith returns. “You need it, Shiro. When was the last time you even slept for at least six hours straight?”

There’s a very telling silence, and Keith sighs and gives Shiro’s shoulder a little bite. “You need it,” he repeats.

“What if they need us?”

“Black will take us back,” Keith answers easily. “Or someone will send Kosmo.”

“What if we’re out of range?”

“Shut up and sleep, Shiro.”

“It’s the middle of the day.”

Keith groans and looks up, only to find Shiro’s lips twitching towards a smile. With another angry groan, he drops his head and bites Shiro’s shoulder again.

“Ass,” he mutters.

Shiro chuckles, but seems to settle after that. His hand rubs up and down Keith’s arm for a few moments, before pulling Keith closer so he sprawls over more of his side.

“I don’t want to waste my time with you on sleep,” he says running his hand down Keith’s spine.

“Tough luck,” Keith mutters, though he shifts until he can press his face into Shiro’s neck and kiss the skin there. “Sleep first, then we’ll see about everything else.”

Shiro releases a long sigh, but doesn’t argue again. Keith feels particularly satisfied at how quickly his breathing evens out after he finally shuts up.

After waiting as long as he can, Keith pulls back a little, propping himself up on Shiro’s chest to look at him. All the tension is gone from his face and it’s lax with sleep. There’s a surge of approval from his bond with Black, before she retreats to the usual background hum that’s easy to forget is even there.

“I wish you’d take better care of yourself,” Keith whispers, leaning up and brushing a kiss to Shiro’s forehead. He lets their foreheads rest together for a moment, a gesture he can never stop wanting.

He’s not tired himself, but he settles back down, resting his head on Shiro’s shoulder. If he has to lie there awake for ten hours just to make sure Shiro gets some sleep, he will.

**Author's Note:**

> Let's be real, the true otp is Shiro/Rest
> 
> You can find me at [legendaryroar](http://legendaryroar.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


End file.
